Gurpartap Singh Wadala

Gurpartap Singh Wadala is a senior Akali politician who rose from being a loyal Shiromani Akali Dal MLA to a leader of the revolt against Sukhbir Singh Badal. He is alive and active, so what follows is taken from newspaper reports, and the views quoted are his and those of the Akali leadership he opposed.

Who he is. He is a former MLA from Nakodar in Jalandhar district. Wikipedia records that he is the son of an earlier Akali MLA, Kuldip Singh Wadala, holds an engineering degree from Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana, and won Nakodar in 2012, defeating the long-serving Congress MLA Amarjit Singh Samra, and again in 2017. He held the seat until 2022.

Key moments

• 1 July 2024: after the party's poor Lok Sabha result, Wadala was among the rebel leaders who went to Sri Akal Takht Sahib and handed Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh a letter apologising for four mistakes of the Akali government of 2007 to 2017. They included the failure to punish those behind the 2015 sacrilege incidents and the pardon of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2007 blasphemy case. The letter said the Panth and the people had drifted from the Akali Dal because of these mistakes.
• 15 July 2024: the rebels launched the SAD Sudhar Lehar at Chandigarh, with Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa as patron and Wadala as convener.
• 23 July 2024: when Badal dissolved the party's core committee, Wadala called it a dictatorial order meant to sideline those who wanted change.
• 30 July 2024: the party expelled eight rebels, Wadala among them, for anti-party activities. Its disciplinary committee head, Balwinder Singh Bhundar, said they had colluded with the party's enemies. Wadala and Bibi Jagir Kaur rejected the charge.
• 2 to 9 December 2024: after the Akal Takht pronounced tankhah on Badal and formed a seven-member committee to rebuild the party, with Wadala on it, the Sudhar Lehar was dissolved on 9 December. Wadala said all members had agreed and the Takht had been told.
• January to February 2025: with Santa Singh Umaidpuri he told the Jathedar that the Akali leadership was defying the Takht's edict. After Harjinder Singh Dhami and Kirpal Singh Badungar quit the committee, the five who remained went on, and Wadala said they would report to the Jathedar.
• 11 August 2025: the committee's delegate session elected Giani Harpreet Singh president of a breakaway Akali Dal.

What he is remembered for. Wadala is the convener who gave the 2024 revolt its name and then, at the Takht's direction, wound it up. Amarjit Singh, a former director of the Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Guru Nanak Dev University, told The Tribune that this Akali faction differed from earlier ones because it was constituted under the Akal Takht's directive, which gave it greater legitimacy within the community. The Badal leadership, for its part, rejected the Takht-appointed committee, ran its own membership drive and re-elected Sukhbir Badal president in April 2025.